The proof is clear: Lexx carried Farscape
If you check the SciFi wire at Scifi.com, they carry a list of the top 10 Scifi channel shows every Monday. Other days of the week they have the list of top network scifi shows and so on. I imagine they archive the info–I find their search engine useless, but you may have more patience than I do.
Maybe someone else knows of other places to find more extensive lists of scifi show ratings. Most of the trade mags (Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, etc.) carry ratings as well, but you have to either subscribe or at least register with most of them, and then you’d have to wade through the list of every show on TV.
I think you’ll find that for some reason viewership for SciFi’s Friday Prime has always dropped off at 10 PM, no matter what show was in that time slot. One of Farscape’s problems was the move to 10PM. It does make you wonder what Scifi was thinking, since Stargate viewers were used to tuning in to that show at 10 PM on Showtime. Programming seems to be a truly arcane “science” [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
I think you’ll also find that it’s very hard to make a judgement just on the raw numbers.
Like most statistics they can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I’m not sure how much the ending of Lexx hurt the Farscape ratings. When SG1 started, Friday Night Prime ratings certainly went up as a whole. I doubt SciFi made their decision on Farscape based on ratings. Aleck probably had the best explanation in the earlier cancellations thread:
[url=http://www.sadgeezer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=24&t=000053]On cancellations[/url]
And in case you’re REALLY interested in some of the ins and outs of ratings, here’s a link that may seem odd, but has good basic resources.
[url=http://www.scetv.org/k12/mathinthemedia.htm]TV Ratings[/url]
You should NEVER have to waste a perfectly good afternoon looking for ratings info [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
elmey